Stuart Eizenstat: Rough Justice and the Unpredictable Nature of Negotiations

For the third year running, the Boston-based Program on Negotiation (http://pon.harvard.edu) conferred the Great Negotiator award on an individual who has exhibited remarkable achievement in the field of conflict resolution and reconciliation. Stuart Eizenstat, the 2003 Great Negotiator recipient, received the award at the Fletcher School in October, for his work on behalf of U.S. citizens who survived the Holocaust. He sought economic justice from the Nazi party, existing governments and private companies that collaborated to force individuals into concentration camps.

The Program on Negotiation is an Inter-University Consortium of three academic institutions in Boston: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Eizenstat spoke at Fletcher on the intricacies of international negotiation and the need for flexibility:

“International negotiations are not linear,” he said. He emphasized how important it is in any negotiation to have the full backing of your colleagues, yet to also know what your bottom line is and at what point you may breach your party’s interests. “Equally important,” he continued, is the knowledge of what your negotiating opponents’ bottom line is, and their overall intent.

Due to the unpredictable nature of negotiations, Eizenstat said, every party must see that there is no blueprint, and therefore no substitute for adaptability and flexibility. Eizenstat attributed his successes to three practices: “creative ambiguity,” employing all parties in negotiations, and patience.

Reparations for this case, coming over fifty years after the work camps existed, were mainly symbolic in nature. Damages incurred in a civil action suit are meant to match the award; however, with millions of people involved in this case, it was impossible for the awards to accurately match these damages. Eizenstat explained how his technical “victory” in this case stemmed not from monetary awards, but from the Holocaust victims’ symbolic vindication, and that the lessons learned might work well for victims of terrorism.

Tufts University President Lawrence Bacow elaborated on Eizenstat’s accomplishments as a legal and economic figure. Eizenstat has contributed to over four decades of public service, serving in both the Carter and Clinton administrations. Eizenstat worked as both presidential economic advisor and Ambassador to the European Union. In the field of negotiation, Eizenstat’s most laudatory activities include work on the Helms-Burton Act, the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, the US-Japan Trade Dispute and the Kyoto Protocols.

The Program on Negotiation resides at Harvard Law School. It has brought together scholars and practitioners in the field of conflict resolution for over 20 years. Previous Great Negotiator honorees include George Mitchell and Charlene Barchevsky.